ABSTRACT
There is no easy way of predicting which words will be susceptible to lexical variation. Furthermore, speech habits may vary within one accent. For example, NRP speakers vary in their choice of vowel for orthographic o in words such as constable, accomplish. Most people use the strut vowel, but some choose lot. Note that the distinction between lexical and distributional variation is not always clear-cut. A good example of this is the case of yod-dropping in American varieties (see p. 158). Even though we have classed this as an example of distributional variation, as it is in principle possible to state a clear rule for the occurrence of this feature, there is in fact much variation on an individual speaker level.
